Tom Cochrane (Penn) is found passed out in an
alleyway and
wearing
a bloody shirt, and by his side is a bloody knife.
Taken to the police
hospital ward in a drunken and narcotic stupor, he
overhears the
homicide
detectives say he will be charged with murder. In a
panic, he flees to
the apartment of his detective brother-in-law, Mac
McLaine (Armstrong).

When Tom's girlfriend Lois Walter (Loring) calls,
she's
invited over
to Mac's and they both question the nice guy Tom about
the hazy events
of last night. All Tom recalls is that he met a guy
called Joe in a bar
and he brought him to a party held somewhere he can't
remember. At the
party he met a singer (Dale) and later he found her
dead in the closet
in the room she took him to. Before Mac can bring Tom
in for
questioning,
Inspector Shannon arrives to arrest Tom. But Mac is
sympathetic with
Tom's
plight as he thinks he's been made the fall guy, so he
decides to let
him
escape. When he meets Tom later, they trace his steps
when he left
Benny's
bar and met the elevator operator named Joe (Elisha
Cook, Jr.). Through
investigative work they locate Joe and squeeze it out
of him through
physical
force where the party was held. From there on it's up
to Tom to uncover
the truth as Mac is jailed for abetting Tom.

Warning: spoiler in the next
paragraph.

Lois has a guardian she calls Uncle Jim (Arnt), even
though
he's
no relation. He's a wealthy and distinguished
gentleman who dislikes
Tom
because of his drinking. It also turns out that he's
jealous of Tom, as
he's attracted to his guardian. In a sickened state of
mind, he devices
this plan to drug Tom so he will suffer from a memory
loss and he then
kills the singer's girlfriend, who has been
blackmailing him over their
affair. He figures he can "kill two birds with one
stone," as he frames
Tom by planting the bloody knife in his hands when
he's unconscious.

This low budget Monogram film noir has a pleasing
moody
visual style
and the usual dark noir theme of an innocent man
trapped by
circumstances
beyond his control. A minor B-film, but it had some
zip.